How 'the Forrest Gump of Republican politics' Brett Kavanaugh became the Supreme Court's most embattled justice in decades, after controversy over sexual misconduct allegations

Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesBrett Kavanaugh has been a federal judge for 12 years.

The Senate voted 50-48 on Saturday to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, to the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh’s nomination appeared to be in jeopardy for weeks, after multiple women came forward to publicly accuse him of sexual misconduct in high school and college. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations in statements and testimony.

But several key senators on Friday announced they intended to vote for him on Saturday regardless, paving the way for his confirmation.

After several tumultuous weeks of uncertainty, Judge Brett Kavanaugh has been confirmed to the Supreme Court on Saturday.

The Senate voted 50-48 on Saturday to confirm Kavanaugh, after several days of speculation over how key senators viewed as “swing votes” would decide. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia were pivotal in confirming Kavanaugh, voting “yes,” while Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski opposed his confirmation.

But the multiple sexual misconduct allegations lodged against Kavanaugh in recent weeks still hangs over Saturday’s news, prompting furious backlash from the protesters who for weeks lobbied Collins, Manchin, and other senators to vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Christine Blasey Ford, 51, accused a teenaged Kavanaugh of forcing himself on her at a high school party in the early 1980s. Deborah Ramirez, a former Yale University classmate of Kavanaugh’s, said Kavanaugh exposed himself to her without her consent at a dorm-room party during his freshman 1983-84 school year.

Kavanaugh categorically denied Ford and Ramirez’s accounts in separate statements before delivering a fiery testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. An additional FBI background check into the allegations concluded less than a week later with no corroboration for the accounts.

Kavanaugh was born and bred in the Washington, DC area and has a long history in conservative circles. Top Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin once called Kavanaugh the “Forrest Gump of Republican politics,” because he was present for so many key moments in modern political history.

As the final vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation approaches, here’s a look at how the born-and-bred conservative rose to become the court’s most pivotal nomination in decades:

Brett Kavanaugh was born Feb. 12, 1965, in Washington, DC.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesKavanaugh looks on as Trump introduces him as his nominee in the East Room of the White House on July 9, 2018.

He attended Georgetown Preparatory School, an all-boys school in Rockville, Maryland. He was staff for the school newspaper, played on the school’s varsity football team, and was captain of the basketball team.

In 1993, Kavanaugh served as a law clerk to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, whom he will replace if the Senate confirms him.

Before he was a partner at DC law firm Kirkland & Ellis, Kavanaugh was associate counsel on the team led by Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor who investigated former President Bill Clinton’s extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

As part of Starr’s team, Kavanaugh helped draft the report recommending Clinton’s impeachment, in which he wrote independent counsel investigations can take “too long,” easily become “politicized,” and can go beyond their original scope.

Democrats have pointed out that these opinions could prove significant as the special counsel Robert Mueller, who is heading the Russia investigation, considers actions Trump has taken that could possibly be considered obstruction of justice.

After Trump made his announcement, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois spoke out against Kavanaugh’s nomination, calling him a “far-right jurist” who “could change the rules in America” because of his expressed opinions on investigating presidents.

Bush nominated him to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, where he has served since 2006. The Senate confirmed him with a vote of 57 to 36. The chief justice John Roberts, and justices Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg also served on the same court before joining the high court.

Kavanaugh helped Bush’s team in the high-stakes Supreme Court decision to block the recount of votes in the 2000 presidential election between Bush and Al Gore.

Kavanaugh also represented then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in his push for a school voucher program that attempted to get public money to private religious schools, which the Supreme Court eventually ruled was unconstitutional while Kavanaugh was on George W. Bush’s staff.

Kavanaugh was on the White House staff during and in the several years of aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, and has since issued rulings supporting wide-ranging governmental authority to surveillance.

Kavanaugh and his wife Ashley met when they were both aides for Bush, and their first date was actually the night before the 9/11 attacks. She was present at his swearing-in to the DC Circuit, alongside by former Justice Kennedy.

During his 2006 confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh said he “would follow Roe v. Wade faithfully and fully. That would be binding precedent of the court.”

During his time on the DC Circuit Court, Kavanaugh taught at Georgetown Law Center, Yale Law School, and Harvard Law School, where he was hired by Justice Elena Kagan, who was then dean of Harvard Law.

“There is no one in America more qualified for this position, and no one more deserving,” Trump said of Kavanaugh at the nomination announcement.

But Democratic senators immediately voiced their opposition. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “I will oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination with everything I have, and I hope a bipartisan majority will do the same. The stakes are simply too high for anything less.”

Days before his confirmation hearing, Democrats spoke out against a White House decision to withhold 27,000 documents — many from Kavanaugh’s time in the Bush administration — citing “constitutional privilege.”

Schumer called it a “Friday night document massacre” that “has all the makings of a cover up.” While the White House had released more than 415,000 pages on Kavanaugh’s background, it withheld over 100,000.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee member, said the documents that she’s seen raise “some very interesting questions” about Kavanaugh’s background, particularly concerning his views on executive power and a president’s eligibility to be investigated.

Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings started with a bang as Senate Democrats moved to adjourn within seconds of its beginning. Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley denied the request.

Dozens of protestors continuously interrupted the hearings to voice concerns over Kavanaugh’s views on issues including abortion and gun rights.

After a week of hearings, a sexual misconduct accusation against Kavanaugh first became publicly known after being detailed in a letter Sen. Dianne Feinstein sent to the FBI without identifying its contents to fellow lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee.

Kavanaugh flatly denied the allegations in a statement from the White House: “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”

Soon after, the accuser spoke to The Washington Post. Christine Blasey Ford detailed her account of an alleged incident in the early 1980s where a “stumbling drunk” Kavanaugh attempted to force himself on her.

Ford, a 51-year-old research psychologist and professor, said through her lawyer Debra Katz that she would testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and “do whatever it takes to get her story forth.”

At first, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Ford “should not be insulted and she should not be ignored,” and while Trump said he felt “terribly” for Kavanaugh, he hoped Ford would “come forward, state her case.”

Ford and Kavanaugh reached an agreement with the Senate Judiciary Committee to both testify on Thursday, September 27.

On Sunday, a week after Ford went public, The New Yorker published an article detailing an allegation from Deborah Ramirez, a former Yale University classmate of Kavanaugh’s who said he exposed himself to her at a dorm-room party during his freshman 1983-84 school year.

In response to Ramirez’s allegations, Kavanaugh released a letter calling the accusation “a smear, plain and simple,” and vowed to fight back “against these last-minute allegations.”

Attorney Michael Avenatti then came forward to represent another woman, Julie Swetnick, who signed a sworn declaration alleging that she witnessed Kavanaugh and Judge display “abusive and physically aggressive behaviour toward girls” during a series of house parties in the 1980s.

Swetnick alleges the boys would “spike” punch with drugs or alcohol to cause girls to lose their inhibitions or ability to say “no,” so that girls could be “gang-raped” by a “train” of boys, and that she was one of the victims.

At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, Ford made gut-wrenching opening remarks testifying under oath that Kavanaugh assaulted her in high school.

In his fiery testimony later that day, Kavanaugh not only denied the allegation but also singled out Democratic senators, accusing them of seeking revenge “on behalf of the Clintons,” and acting out of “pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election.”

In a shock move, Sen. Jeff Flake made a surprise proposal at Friday’s vote for a week-long FBI investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, which earned bipartisan support and approval from President Donald Trump.

The FBI interviewed several key figures including Deborah Ramirez and several former Yale classmates, but not Ford or Kavanaugh. Democrats slammed the investigation after it concluded Thursday, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying their worries about a constrained investigation “have been realised.”

Despite partisan tension, the Senate voted 51-49 Friday to advance Kavanaugh’s confirmation. According to cloture rules, the final floor vote could occur as soon as Saturday night after no more than 30 hours of floor debate.

With their 51-49 hold on the Senate, Republicans can’t afford to lose any votes. Democrats are pushing hard to block Kavanaugh’s nomination, and all eyes will be on the Senate to see how lawmakers decide to proceed on his confirmation.